Lidl Birmingham Handsworth

Formerly known as The Real Junk Food Project Birmingham, Incredible Surplus has been operating since 2014. Since then, we have redistributed over 1800 tonnes of waste food, cooked and served over 36,000 meals, helped 100 people achieve a Level 2 Food Safety Certificate, and seen dozens of volunteers move on into paid employment. All this would never have been possible without our amazing bank of volunteers and without the ongoing support of our donors and partner organisations. Our volunteers intercept food and other items that would otherwise go to waste from supermarkets, restaurants and other sources and redistribute them on a “Pay-As-You-Feel” basis. We run a series of community venues on a weekly across Birmingham and Solihull. We also ‘pop up’ at other venues. Please see www.incrediblesurplus.org for more info. The food we intercept has to be fit for human consumption and therefore we do not take food that has reached its Use By date, but we can take food past its Best Before date. Alongside food donations we also receive non-food items such as toilet rolls, household items, toys, and clothes, which we can redistribute across Birmingham at regular venues and via partner organisations. Our project is for everyone and we attract a wide range of people. In the main however, we feed people who are in food poverty; this includes the homeless, refugees, single parents, people with mental health problems. What is unique with us is that anyone can access the donated items or food on a Pay As You Feel basis. All give something back in return, whether this be a cash donation, their time, or skills. This system helps to prevent stigmatisation as well as fostering an enabling approach. Our project is predominantly run by volunteers. We have just a handful pf paid staff who are paid the living wage and volunteer extra hours on top. Many of our volunteers hold level 2 Food Hygiene Certificates, and a number of our volunteers have gained skills and qualifications and now have moved onto paid work. We're always on the look out for more donors/suppliers and volunteers!

We are Assembles of the First Born Church based in Aston Lozells. We are making an appeal for food donations for our weekly foodbank in Lozells, which is a deprived area of Birmingham. We have been running a weekly foodbank since the first lockdown and have noticed the number of families with young children that are in need of support, people who have lost their job due to Covid and the homeless. As part of our usual program for ministering to those in need we provide food and toiletries. We would appreciate any food and toiletries that you could donate to help us to continue to support a community in need. We are currently supporting 30-40 persons per week which only accounts for the adult that collect the food, and not the other members of the family. We keep a robust register of all who collect a care package. We operate the food bank from a building at the rear of the church. We support service users who are homeless, from hostels, local community and individuals who are refered to us by their probation officer who see our sign. We are part of a Whatapp foodbank group who will refer indudivuals to us. At the foodbank we also supply clothes and bedding to individual who require them. We do not charge for our services , all the team work on a volunteery basic to support the cause. At present we do not collect surplus food from any retailers, but other food bank if they have any surplus they will notify us. We have had no local press coverage in regards to the work we are doing in the community. We would be happy to send some photos and leaflets showing what we do at the food bank. We thank you in advance and hope that you will be able to offer us some support. We promise to embrace transparency as we have always done. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, Monica Bailey or Rev Angela Williamson.

We are a food bank (c/o Deeper Life Bible Church<DLBC>, 95 Bacchus Road, B18 4QP Birmingham) with the aim to providing dry and canned food to residents struggling to feed within the community and referrals due to rise in rate of cost of food and living expenses. We do run coffee afternoon on weekends and do not charge for the service(s) provided nor currently collect surplus food from any other retailers. We require any surplus goods or products ranging from ambience food, dry foods, fruit and vegetables. Listed below are the way we identify service users and their needs: 1. Service users are referred to us by counsellor with their needs noted, which for us is to enable them to access the food bank. 2. As we run warm place during the winter months, we have those who are not able to heat their homes or who want company to come into our premises. They also indicate if they need food and can access the food bank. 3. We use the church premises, members and those who are attending at any time, also indicate need for food and we allow them to access the food bank. 4. We are located in a deprived community, and get those in the community come in to us to access the food bank. From all the list above, some access continually after first referral, some for a while and some once. Below are the other services provided by Life Food Aid with some support from DLBC other than food support: 1. Warm space: we provide warm space for all during the winter month, particularly those in the community. 2. Coffee morning: We provide coffee morning / afternoon on selected days. 3. Music outreaches: We provide music outreaches. 4. Health and wellbeing seminars: We run bi-annual health and well being seminars that can be attended in person and online. 5. Social activities: We run social activities like barbecue that are open to others in the community.